Brussels, 03/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Good but could do better. This is the Commission's opinion on implementation of the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme (6EAP). Half way through its mandate, the European Commission has proceeded to a mid-term review of this programme, which provides a ten year strategic framework for the Commission's environmental policy, in an effort to measure progress achieved since its launch in 2002 and identify the challenges to meet up to 2012.
Results from the examination published by the Commission on 4 May, confirm the relevance of the priority targets being pursued. But progress so far calls for more effort in energetically tackling climate change, the erosion of biodiversity, the health impact of pollution and the use of non-sustainable resources.
Commenting on these results, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a press release: "EU environment policy is delivering tangible results for our citizens and has helped European industry to become a world leader in ecotechnologies. But despite this progress, global emissions of greenhouse gases are rising, the loss of biodiversity is not yet under control, pollution is still harming public health and volumes of waste are increasing in Europe. The Commission is committed to fully implementing the current Environment Action Programme in order to make significant progress towards tackling these issues."
To keep implementation of the 6EAP on track and address new challenges effectively, the mid-term review makes clear the Commission will focus on: making international co-operation more effective in support of the EU's global environmental policies; improving policy integration and coherence by increasing the mutual support between environment policy and policies in other sectors, such as energy, transport, industrial policy, agriculture, fisheries, external relations and research; increasing the role of market-based instruments, in particular the use of taxation at EU and national levels to help meet environment policy goals. The Commission will work with Member States to encourage a shift in the burden of taxation from labour towards protecting the environment; improving the implementation and enforcement of existing legislation; improving the quality of environmental regulation, and applying the principles of Better Regulation to improve the effectiveness of environment policies; actively encouraging the development and deployment of environmental technologies and stepping up efforts to promote eco-efficient solutions and define common standards and benchmarks.
Eco-innovation has fully play a part
A Commission report on trends and developments in eco-innovation in the European Union, published the same day confirmed the strong growth of eco-industries and emphasised that the state of the environment and climate change call for the take-up of clean and environmentally-friendly innovation on a massive scale. The report highlights that European companies are world leaders in several environmental markets and that current environmental legislation acts as a driver for promoting innovation in these markets. Convinced that the efforts of companies working on their own will not be sufficient, the Commission says that collective action by the European Union and its Member States is necessary. The European Union's Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP) was launched by the Commission in 2004 as a way to foster greater demand for environmental technologies and to create a fertile ground for eco-innovation. By 2013, ETAP will have been instrumental in channelling over €12 billion towards eco-innovation projects, the report explains, citing the wind power sector, for example, which owes much of its success to research and development projects funded by the European Union.
The mid-term review of the 6EAP is accompanied by an impact assessment, a complete overview of the result so far obtained, as well as a balance sheet for environmental policy in 2006, which for the first time, provide an overall view of the initiatives by member states (these documents are available online:
http: //ec.europa.eu/environment/newprg/index.htm and
http: //ec.europa.eu/environment/policyreview.htm
This annual environmental policy report also stresses the vital importance of European policy for combating climate change, and the firm stance taken by the Commission when assessing national plans for allocating greenhouse gas emission quotas. It also takes stock of the progress made in the revised sustainable development strategy adopted by the EU; the REACH regulation establishing a new policy for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemical products; the adoption of the last three thematic strategies on the urban environment, soil protection and pesticides; as well as measures for safeguarding biodiversity and natural resources. Its tone, which was generally positive, contrasts with the critical assessment made by a group of European environmental NGOs, which, under the banner of “Green 10”, gave the environmental performance of the Barroso Commission a score well below the average, although it did pay tribute to European progress in measures to combat climate change (EUROPE 9418).
Other voices raised expressed vexation at these scores. Thus, the animal welfare organisation, Eurogroup for Animals, is disappointed that, in its communication, the Commission had omitted all reference to animal protection and said nothing of the measures that it is recommending to minimise animal testing in future, although the directive on animal experiments is to be published this year. Neither was anything said about the “superfluous importation of million of exotic animals sacrificed for the pet trade in the EU, or the impact that this trade has on biodiversity in third countries”, the NGO commented, deploring the fact that the Commission simply speaks about “access to genetic resources and the sharing of profits made” and development. Eurogroup fears that this is synonymous with exploitation and loss of biodiversity rather than protection and conservation. (an)